Norfolk eye bank creates millions in benefits

Prue Salasky, psalasky@dailypress.com

Eye donations nationwide account for $6 billion in lifetime benefits to recipients each year, according to the Eye Bank Association of America. Locally, donations to The Lions Medical Eye Bank & Research Center of Eastern Virginia accrue more than $62 million in benefits to corneal transplant recipients.

The study, "Cost-Benefit Analysis of Corneal Transplants," released last week by The Lewin Group, compared the medical cost of transplant procedures to the direct and indirect lifetime costs of the alternative — living with blindness or severe vision impairment, which result in higher routine medical costs, long-term care costs and years of lost productivity.

It estimated a cost-savings locally of $27 million to Medicare, Medicaid and Lions Eye Bank patients for 2013, rating the economic benefit at a five-to-one return for Medicare recipients, those 65 and older, and 18-to-one for younger recipients. The average per-patient cost for a transplant and a year's care is $16,300 as compared to $77,000 in anticipated medical costs and $214,000 in indirect costs.

The first successful U.S. corneal transplants were conducted in the 1930s. In the past decade, microsurgery and minimally invasive techniques have resulted in a more than 95 percent success rate, according to Korenna Cline, publicist for the Eye Bank Association.

Virtually everyone is a potential donor, apart from those suffering from infections or communicable diseases. Cataracts, poor eyesight or age are not hindrances for donation. The tissue has no blood supply so it doesn't require blood typing or tissue matching. It is also not dependent on blood type, age, eye sight strength or eye color.

Most corneal replacements are done for age-related or genetic, inherited diseases, according to Lions Eye Bank Medical Director Bruce Bodner, a fellowship-trained ophthalmologist in corneal disease, who was instrumental in the bank's founding 34 years ago. "In their mid-to-late 40s and 50s people tend to lose clarity. They become unable to work. They can't drive, they can't read. It brings life to a grinding halt," he said in an earlier interview.

The eye bank is also a member of the consortium Vision Share, http://www.visonshare.org, a primary exporter of tissue overseas.